Some further highlights from the research done by Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet project for Vital Signs Online

• Pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world, followed by poultry, beef, and mutton.
• Poultry production is the fastest growing meat sector, increasing 4.7 percent in 2010 to 98 million tons.
• Worldwide, per capita meat consumption increased from 41.3 kilograms in 2009 to 41.9 kilograms in 2010. People In the developing world eat 32 kilograms of meat a year on average, compared to 80 kilograms per person in the industrial world.
• Of the 880 million rural poor people living on less than $1 per day, 70 percent are partially or completely dependent on livestock for their livelihoods and food security.
• Demand for livestock products will nearly double in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, from 200 kilocalories per person per day in 2000 to some 400 kilocalories in 2050.
• Raising livestock accounts for roughly 23 percent of all global water use in agriculture, equivalent to 1.15 liters of water per person per day.
• Livestock account for an estimated 18 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, producing 40 percent of the world's methane and 65 percent of the world's nitrous oxide.
• Seventy-five percent of the antibiotics used on livestock are not absorbed by the animals and are excreted in waste, posing a serious risk to public health. 
• An estimated 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could be prevented if people decreased their red meat consumption to the level of the group that ate the least.
• Eating organic, pasture-raised animals can be healthier and environmentally beneficial compared to industrial feedlot systems.